Page 97 of Deceptive Games

“Yeah, sorry. I’m still tired,” I lied, sitting up straighter.

I had no idea what we were supposed to be doing for class, I’d zoned out pretty early.

Jensen leaned forward and tapped the book in front of me. “Page fifty-three.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled, grabbing the book and flipping it to the page he said.

I tried to catch back up, and Jensen helped me when I got stuck on some of the questions.

We’d never studied history at all at Hawthorne Heights High, so this advanced history bullshit was way over my head.

I was aware of Caden glancing at me throughout the rest of the lesson, but he kept his mouth shut so I could concentrate.

The day dragged, and by the time PE rolled around in the afternoon, I was ready to go home. I didn’t want to participate, but the teacher didn’t particularly give a shit when they allocated me a team in basketball and told me to get over there.

The other students gave me dirty looks, none of them wanting me on their team, and I flipped Claire off as she glared at me from the opposing team. She’d been shooting daggers at me all damn day, but so far, she hadn’t said anything.

That was until she caught the ball mid game and snapped one of her fancy fake nails, making me snicker.

“Got something to say, Aurora?” she hissed, clutching her hand like she’d broken her damn wrist.

“Why put those things on if you can’t do stuff with them?” I asked dryly, catching the ball as she picked it up and shoved it at me. “It’s not my fucking fault.”

“Aurora,” the teacher sighed, giving me a pointed look about my language before turning to Claire. “You’re not bleeding. Play on.”

“What? I snapped a nail, miss!” she screeched, the woman frowning with confusion.

“Yes, but it wasn’t your finger. Keep playing.”

The game continued, and I dribbled the ball up the court, a little surprised when I passed it to one of the other girls on my team and she passed it back near the hoop, and just as I got ready to throw it, I was hip checked and landed hard on the ground.

The whistle blew and the teacher jogged over, peering down at me. “Are you?—”

I got to my feet and launched myself at Claire, who was standing beside me with a smirk on her face, a scream leaving her as I shoved her back with force.

She hit the ground and cried out as her hand scraped on the ground, the whistle blowing close to my ear and making me wince.

“Both of you, enough. You can spend the rest of class doing suicides.”

Claire looked horrified, and satisfaction rolled through me when I moved to do as I was told while the teacher scolded Claire to hurry up. If doing this meant Claire got flustered, it was totally worth it.

She went to snap at me when she finally joined me, but the teacher wasn’t having it. “No talking!”

Even better.

I was dead on my feet by the time we were told to stop, sweat dripping off me and causing my hair to stick to my face. Claire looked just as bad, and she scuttled off to shower before anyone else could witness it.

I took my time heading in there, hoping I wasn’t going to run into her, and I wasn’t surprised to find my uniform on the floor with shampoo and water poured all over them.

It was a decoy anyway. I kept a spare uniform in Caden’s locker these days since no one would dare touch his things.

“Oh no, someone’s maid accidentally washed my clothes,” I deadpanned as I bent down to pick them up and wrung them out, hearing a sound of outrage leaving Claire from one of the stalls.

It was the end of the day anyway, so I gathered my things and went to leave, deciding to just shower at home. Being covered in sweat in public wasn’t really an issue for me, thanks to fighting in front of a crowd.

Some of the other girls walked in, and I was so focused on them that I didn’t hear Claire sneak up behind me and shove me, making me stumble.

I turned to punch her, but someone grabbed my hair and jerked me back hard, slamming my front against the wall. A trickle of fear hit me as a body pressed against my back, one that was definitely too big to be one of the girls.